From Russia, with love.

So for the last 6ish days we have been Russian around (hehe) St Petersburg and Moscow. Its been so much fun!!! We arrived direct to St Petersburg from Copenhagen and were met by a rather bright and happy girl named Katya (our tour guide for the trip), who was - I'm sad to say, wearing a puffy jacket. From the airport we were promptly whisked away to our three star hotel and given the lowdown on navigating the city. Without missing a beat we headed into Nevsky Prospekt (which is just too fun a phrase to say) to check out the Church of the Spilled Blood. Wow oh wow, what a start to Russia. The church in a nutshell is A-ma-zing! After having a look around, and inside we headed to St Petersburg Cafe for a lunch of Borsch and Beef Stroganoff - staples of Russian traditional cuisine. Afterwards it was back to the hotel to meet the rest of our tour group.

Tuesday we boarded our bus for a tour of the city, taking in sights such as St Issac's Cathedral, the bronze horseman and winter palace before taking a very cheap tour of the Hermitage. That evening we had a special vodka party with some new friends.

The next day, being the independent travellers we are - we opted OUT of an optional tour and sneakily decided to attempt seeing all the sights ourselves. Having discussed the idea with a pleasant information kiosk lady we were confident we would be successful. Plus we would save ourselves a lot of mullah, instead of 80 quid each we budgeted about 20 quid together. So, we made our way out to Tsarskoye Selo (St Catherine's Palace - Summer Palace) near Pushkin all via the public bus. A little mishap of a missed stop but we quickly recovered. Another bus and a gold toothed smile later we arrived at the palace. Afterwards we headed back into town to St Peter and Paul's fortress, the resting place of the Tsars of Russia including the body of the last Tsar. As well as witnessing a strange ritual of near naked bodies leaning against the fortress wall in 5 degree weather to get a Russian tan - crazy! From there we strolled along the Neva River to have another go-gander at St Issac's - which we were surprised to find out is sinking and may close to tourists within the next 12 months. We then headed to the Mariinsky Theatre to watch a Russian production of the fable - the humpbacked horse. That night we boarded a very snug overnight train to Moscow.

After dropping our bags at the hotel in Moscow, we had a quick breakfast and headed out on a walking tour of the city's sights. Taking in most of the red square and being taken back by the stunning St Basil's Cathedral. Unfortunately Lenin's Mausoleum was closed as he was vacationing at the spa - they have embalmed him so well that his finger nails and hair still grow - eww! We then lunched in the beautiful GUM department store before joining an organised tour of the Kremlin. We finished our afternoon checking out the inside of St Basil's, nothing flash, before heading over to see the Moscow Circus troop.

Our final day was left to our choosing, so J and I took in a tour of the amazing metro system of Soviet Russia ending in Revolutionary Square. We then travelled back to our hotel to check out the Vernisazh Markets to purchase our very own Matryoshka doll and equally kitsch souvenirs. We then had a lovely dinner on Old Arbat before a night tour of Moscow, to see all the sights lit up.

It has been an amazing trip, that flew by and we cant wait to go back again!

Us at the church of spilled blood.

Yarit (Jarratt - Russian style) at St Peters and Paul's Fortress

Us in the Red Square (State History Museum behind)

Being silly in Red Square (St Basil's Behind)